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WINE IN ANCIENT INDIA.
According to the Hindu Shastras there are four ages, and for each age a suitable shastra is given. We find from Kularnava Tantra, in Satya-Yuga (the Golden age of righteousness, free from sin) the scriptures were the Vedas.
The second age was the Treta-Yuga (righteousness decreased by one fourth) the scriptures were the Smrities.
The third age was the Dvapara-Yuga (righteousness decresed by half) the scriptures were the Puranas.
The fourth age is the Kali-Yuga (the iron age, in which we find so much wickedness, and the decline of all that is good) the scriptures are the Tantras.*
We shall deal only with the following :—
- Shruti or the Vedas.
- Smriti or codes of law, the Dharma Shastra proper i. e. religious or secular, and domestic codes.
- Puranas or mythology proper.
- The great epics—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
- Buddhist precepts, an off-shoot of the Hindu Shastras.
- Tantras.
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- According to historians the early ages India are divided into five epochs viz.
